A FedGov Apparatchik Gets Testy

Read this piece from Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man.

Now read this petulant little tizzy from a FedGov lawyer and "administrative law judge" (find that in the Constitution) from the Instapundit post linking to the Shlaes article:

I’ve been reading your blog for years and I appreciate your nuanced brand of conservatism. But lately, your attack on public pensions has me concerned. Look at it from my perspective:

When I graduated from law school and applied for a job at a Federal agency almost 30 years ago, the deal was simple: “We won’t pay you as much as you might make in the private sector, but you’ll get reasonable pay, great benefits including a generous retirement system, and a reasonable work life.” I took the deal. I started at a salary of around $20,000, or around one quarter of what new associates at big to mid-sized firms were making then. My first office was a cubicle with a WWII era metal desk. I worked hard, though rarely on weekends after my kids were born. I’ve had jobs writing administrative decisions, counseling auditors, as committee counsel on Capitol Hill, and most recently as a relatively low-level administrative law judge. My salary is now around $150,000. It makes for a good living for my family, but is not comparable to the salaries that most of my law school classmates, with comparable academic standing, now make. It is not even in the same ballpark as the salaries the big-firm lawyers who routinely appear before me make. One of them lives up the street from me in a much nicer house. But, I’m happy with the deal I made 30 years ago. I’ve had a good career and in a few years, I’ll be eligible for a comfortable retirement (although I still won’t be able to afford the house of the guy up the street).

Apparently though, some people, in and out of government, are no longer happy with the deal. Complaints and warnings about government pensions and pensioners abound. Typically, the narrative is something along the lines of: “Greedy Retired Bureaucrats Still Feeding at the Public Trough as Taxpayers Suffer!”

Well, if you’re concerned about unfunded government liabilities, I agree with you. If you think that government employee pensions are too generous, I’ll listen to what you have to say. But if you just don’t like the deal the government made 30 years ago and want out, I’ll see you in court.

Think this stooge can imagine that the matter might be adjourned to a different tribunal than that to which he is accustomed?

Perhaps some form of alternative dispute resolution between the ruling class and the country class, to use Codevilla's now-classic frame?

Or will you just let this welfare-entitlement-mindset thief plunder the lifetime earnings of your children and grandchildren?